Apparatus and method for inspecting road surfaces

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for inspecting road surfaces includes a global positioning system (GPS) unit, an acceleration sensor, a comparing module, and a storing module. The GPS unit is mounted on a car to detect a position of the car. The acceleration sensor is mounted on the car to sense vertical movement of the car. The vertical movement of the car is recorded as a coordinate along a Z-axis of the car. The comparing module compares the coordinate along the Z-axis of the car with a reference coordinate. The storing module stores the coordinate along the Z-axis and the position corresponding to the coordinate when the coordinate along the Z-axis is greater than the reference coordinate.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a system and a method for inspectingroad surfaces for damage.

2. Description of Related Art

In order to make plans for road maintenance, road inspections areroutinely performed. These inspections are performed visually requiringthat an inspector to physically traverse sections of road to beinspected, which is time-consuming, and the results are subject to humanerror.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with referenceto the following drawings. The components in the drawings are notnecessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed uponclearly illustrating the principles of the present embodiments.Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus forinspecting road surfaces, the apparatus includes a first storage unit.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the apparatus of FIG. 1 in a state ofuse.

FIG. 4 is another schematic diagram of the apparatus of FIG. 1 in astate of use.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an exemplary embodiment of a method forinspecting road surfaces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosure, including the accompanying drawings, is illustrated byway of examples and not by way of limitation. It should be noted thatreferences to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are notnecessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at leastone.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus forinspecting road surfaces includes a global positioning system (GPS) unit10, an acceleration sensor 11, a first processing unit 16, a firststorage unit 18, a network unit 15, a second processing unit 13, and asecond storage unit 14. In the embodiment, the GPS unit 10, theacceleration sensor 11, the second processing unit 13, the secondstorage unit 14, and the network unit 15 are set in a hand heldapparatus, such as a mobile phone 1. The first processing unit 16 andthe first storage unit 18 are set in a computer 2. The mobile phone 1communicates with the computer 2 with the network unit 15. The GPS unit10, the acceleration sensor 11, the second storage unit 14, and thenetwork unit 15 are all connected to the second processing unit 13. Thefirst processing unit 16 is connected to the first storage unit 18.

Referring to FIG. 2, the mobile phone 1 is mounted on a bracket 5attached to a car 20. The principal of the present disclosure is that aroad in good repair should provide a smooth ride. If there are potholes,bumps or the like in the road, then a car traveling over these flawsshould experience a bumpy ride that can be detected by accelerationsensors. The GPS unit 10 continuously tracks the position of the car 20,so that the exact location of any detected flaws in the road can bedetermined and recorded. The acceleration sensor 11 continuously detectsvertical movement of the car 20, with special notice taken of suddenaccelerations perpendicular to the road surface, which may indicate thepresence of a flaw in the road. The GPS unit 10 and the accelerationsensor 11 respectively output the position and the vertical movement ofthe car 20 to the second processing unit 13. Each position correspondsto a vertical movement. In the embodiment, the position of the car 20can be recorded as longitude and latitude. The vertical movement of thecar 20 can be recorded as coordinates about an X-axis and Y-axis,corresponding to latitude and longitude and a Z-axis corresponding tosudden acceleration along the vertical direction. Sudden accelerationalong the vertical direction is used to detect a flaw in the road.

The second storage unit 14 includes a setting module 12 (FIG. 1) whichmay include one or more computerized instructions to be executed by thesecond processing unit 13. The setting module 12 is used to set a workmode of the apparatus. When the apparatus is in an automatic mode, theacceleration unit 11 detects the vertical movement of the car 20. Whenthe apparatus is in a manual mode, the acceleration unit 11 does notoperate.

The first storage unit 18 includes a comparing module 180 which mayinclude one or more computerized instructions to be executed by thefirst processing unit 16, and a storing module 182. The position and thevertical movement of the car 20 are transmitted to the first processingunit 16 from the second processing unit 13 through the network unit 15.The comparing module 180 compares a coordinate of the Z-axis of the car20 with a reference coordinate. The reference coordinate is defined asan allowable peak value of the flaw in the road. When a coordinate ofthe Z-axis of the car is greater than the reference coordinate, itdenotes that there may be flaws in the road at this position. At thistime, the first processing unit 16 stores a position of the car 20corresponding to the coordinates in the storing module 182. Moreover,the GPS unit 10 further detects a direction of horizontal movement ofthe car 20 to make sure which side of the road needs repair, such asnorthbound lane.

In addition, an operator can prioritize which road needs to be repairedaccording to the coordinate of the Z-axis of the car 20. In other words,the greater the acceleration along the Z-axis of the car 20, the biggerthe flaw and so a higher priority is attributed to this section of theroad. Moreover, if there are many flaws detected in a particular sectionof road, the first processing unit 16 further marks the section of roadto alert the operator that the section of road may need to be rebuilt.

If a road is naturally bumpy, the operator can set the apparatus inmanual mode by operating the setting module 12, and take the mobilephone 1 from the car 20. At this time, the acceleration unit 11 does notoperate. If the operator considers any part of road need repairing, theoperator can record information such as a depth of the pothole in thestoring module 182. At the same time, the GPS unit 10 records a positionof the mobile phone 1.

Referring to FIG. 3, when the car 20 travels a first section of road,the setting module 12 is operated to set the apparatus in the automaticmode. At this time, the GPS unit 10 detects the position of the car 20,and the acceleration unit 11 detects the vertical movement of the car 20correspondingly. The positions and the vertical movement of the car 20that the first processing unit 16 receives are shown on the display ofthe mobile phone 1 in FIG. 3. The comparing module 180 compares thecoordinate of the Z-axis at each position with the reference coordinateto determine whether each coordinate of the Z-axis is less than or equalto the reference coordinate. In this case, the readings, shown as thewavy line on the display of the mobile phone of FIG. 3, indicate thatdeviations from the reference coordinate, shown as a broken straightline superimposed on the wavy line of FIG. 3, are less than a maximumdeviation, so the first section of the road meets all requirements, anddoes not need to be repaired.

Referring to FIG. 4, when the car 20 travels a second section of road,the GPS unit 10 detects the position of the car 20, and the accelerationunit 11 detects the vertical movement of the car 20 correspondingly. Thepositions and the vertical movement of the car 20 that the firstprocessing unit 16 receives are shown on the display of the mobile phone1 in FIG. 4. The comparing module 180 compares the coordinate of theZ-axis at each position with the reference coordinate to determine thatthe coordinates of the Z-axis when the car 20 is between a point P and apoint Q on the second section of road is greater than the referencecoordinate. The readings, shown as the wavy line on the display of themobile phone of FIG. 4, indicate that deviations from the referencecoordinate, shown as a broken straight line, between the point P and thepoint Q are greater than the maximum deviation, so a section of the roadbetween the point P and the point Q on the second section of road needsto be repaired.

Referring to FIG. 5, an exemplary embodiment of a method for inspectingroad surfaces includes the following steps.

In step S1, the setting module 12 sets a mode of the apparatus, such asan automatic mode or a manual mode.

In step S2, when the setting module 12 sets the apparatus in anautomatic mode, the GPS unit 10 detects the position of the car 20, andtransmits the position of the car 20 to the first processing unit 16through the second processing unit 13 and the network unit 15.

In step S3, the acceleration unit 11 detects the vertical movement ofthe car 20 and transmits the vertical movement of the car 20 to thefirst processing unit 16 through the second processing unit 13 and thenetwork unit 15. In this embodiment, the vertical movement of the car 20is recorded as a coordinate of the Z-axis.

In step S4, the comparing module 180 compares the coordinate of theZ-axis with the reference coordinate. If the coordinate of the Z-axis isless than or equal to the reference coordinate, then the road at thecorresponding position meets requirements, namely the road at thisposition does not need to be repaired, and the process returns to stepS3.

In step S5, if the coordinate of the Z-axis is greater than thereference coordinate, the first processing unit 16 stores the coordinateof the Z-axis and a corresponding position on the road in the storingmodule 182. In this state, the surface at this position on the road doesnot meet requirements, and needs to be repaired.

In step S6, when the setting module 12 sets the apparatus in a manualmode, the acceleration unit 11 does not operate, and the GPS unit 10records a position of the mobile phone 1 as the operator inspects theroad surface. If the operator considers a section of the road needsrepair then the operator can record details, such as a depth of apothole, in the storing module 182.

The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the disclosurehas been presented only for the purposes of illustration and descriptionand is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to theprecise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possiblein light of everything above. The embodiments were chosen and describedin order to explain the principles of the disclosure and their practicalapplication so as to enable others of ordinary skill in the art toutilize the disclosure and various embodiments and with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skillsin the art to which the present disclosure pertains without departingfrom its spirit and scope. Accordingly, the scope of the presentdisclosure is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoingdescription and the exemplary embodiments described therein.

1. An apparatus for inspecting road surfaces, the apparatus comprising:a global positioning system (GPS) unit mounted to a car to detect aposition of the car; an acceleration sensor mounted to the car to sensevertical movement of the car, wherein the vertical movement of the caris recorded as a coordinate along a Z-axis of the car; a firstprocessing unit; a second processing unit connected to the GPS unit andthe acceleration unit to receive the position and the vertical movementof the car, wherein the second processing unit transmits the positionand the vertical movement of the car to the first processing unit; afirst storage unit connected to the first processing unit and storing aplurality of programs to be executed by the first processing unit,wherein the first storage unit comprises: a comparing module to comparethe coordinate along the Z-axis of the car with a reference coordinate;and a storing module to store the coordinate along the Z-axis and theposition corresponding to the coordinate when the coordinate along theZ-axis is greater than the reference coordinate.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the GPS unit and the acceleration sensor are mounted ina hand held apparatus, the hand held apparatus further comprises anetwork unit; the first processing unit and the first storage unit aremounted in a computer, the first processing unit communicates with thesecond processing unit through the network unit.
 3. The apparatus ofclaim 2, further comprising: a second storage unit connected to thesecond processing unit and storing a plurality of programs to beexecuted by the second processing unit, wherein the second storage unitcomprises: a setting module to set a work mode of the apparatus, whereinwhen the apparatus is in an automatic mode, the acceleration unit works,and when the apparatus is in a manual mode, the acceleration unit doesnot operate, and the GPS unit further detects a position of the handheld apparatus.
 4. A method for inspecting road surfaces, the methodcomprising: detecting a position of a car by a global position system(GPS) unit; sensing vertical movement of the car by an accelerationsensor, wherein the vertical movement of the car is recorded as acoordinate along a Z-axis of the car; determining whether the coordinatealong the Z-axis of the car is greater than a reference coordinate; andrecording the coordinate along the Z-axis of the car and thecorresponding position when the coordinate along the Z-axis of the caris greater than the reference coordinate.
 5. The method of claim 5,further comprising: determining a number of recorded positions between adefined length of the road; and marking a corresponding section of roadto be rebuilt when the number of recorded positions greater than adefined number.